NEW rules of SEO in 2013

by Aron Baczonismall business marketing and SEO consultant

nothing new in SEO*

* if you earned your rankings naturally! Keep doing what you did.

SEO history – past few years

Have a website with some content and then obtain links:• Directory submissions• Blog commenting spamming with softwares like

Scrapebox, SEONuke, etc.• Order 300 to 400 word articles or scrape content, spin it

and submit it on blog networks & article directories• Buy links

Google algorithm changes:• Panda - Looks for duplicate content and content farms• Penguin - Looks for low quality links, over optimized

text and keyword stuffing

Nothing new in SEO

• Create unique and valuable content• Focus on keywords and not rankings – focus

on long tail keywords• Focus on On-Page SEO• Design matters• Promote content• Authorship with Google+ - the only thing

that’s actually new in SEO

So....how do you rank your small business website?

what follows is a step by step guide...

1. Is your website rank worthy?

Unique and valuable content:

Unique = written by you or your staff

Valuable = solves my problem, answers my questions, helps me make a good decision, guides me through a purchase, etc...

1. Unique and valuable content - examples

Frequently asked questions (10 at least)What are the questions that every customer asks you before the first purchase?

– How does it work?– Which one is better?– What accessories do I need with it?– Which one should I choose?– How and with what should I start with?

These are the questions your customers come up with by themselves.

1. Unique and valuable content - examples

Questions they should have asked (10 at least)questions that „open their eyes”, and makes them understand why to choose you, why a high quality but bit pricier product or service is better then a cheap one.

⁻ 10 things you should insist on if you choose service/company X.⁻ Why is feature/attribute/capability X important in a product like this?⁻ How much money should I spend on flowers/birthdays/anniversaries?⁻ Why is 24h customer service important when choosing hosting services?⁻ 5 signs by which you can judge the quality in a suit

1. Unique and valuable content - examples

Questions they should have asked (10 at least)• focus the reader’s attention to your higher priced

goods and on things your company or product is better then the competition

• help your reader make a better purchase decision!

• make sure to highlight all the things that a typical customer doesn’t know, but if it would know, it would buy the higher priced products

2. Focus on keywords not rankings

Don’t chase after rankings with „fat head” keywords!

Focus your attention on increasing the number of keywords sending you good search traffic!

3. Focus on On-Page SEO

– HTML Head tags– URL– Body Tags– Internal Links– Page architecture– Page load time– Microformats – specially for

address

Full article: http://bit.ly/seo-onpage

Latest (2011) SEO ranking factors by SEOmoz: http://bit.ly/seo-ranking-factors

4. Design matters

We’re not in 1995 any more, but you don’t need the fancy new stuff like responsive design or mobile website, sliders, etc. either!

Focus on these:• Readable content – font size, type and color• Design around the goal and purpose of the website – call

to actions!• If you invest in design then create one that elicits and

conveys emotions!• Make sure you don’t have a faceless website!

5. Promote content

You still need link building and citations:⁻ Ask your customers and suppliers⁻ Associations and organizations you’re member of⁻ Directories – still work*⁻ Testimonials⁻ Give products for reviews⁻ Contests and giveaways⁻ Press releases*⁻ Build relationships and link out (meetups!)⁻ Share content on social networks⁻ Blog commenting & forum posting – add value⁻ Guest post or trade articles

Do use keyword rich anchor text if you can but don’t worry too much about it.

6. Google’s AuthorRankWhat is AuthorRank?A reputation score for the author based on public reaction to the content (comments, social shares, links, etc.)

How to implement AuthorShip?1. Create a Google+ Profile2. Add authorship markup to your content – http://bit.ly/authorship-setup 3. Use Google+ frequently – (and add me to your circles - Aron Baczoni)

Your Google+ Company page4. Create a local Google+ page and merge with Google+ Local listing*5. Add publisher markup to your website6. Update Google+ page frequently

Best post so far that I read about Google+ and SEO: http://www.blindfiveyearold.com/google-plus-seo

That’s it folks! Thanks for listening.

now let me hear your questions...